7 ms·

An underwater landslide knocked out two critical submarine cables serving Africa

118 points by dtjb 3y ago

mrlonglong 3y ago
[flagged]
- PNewling 3y ago
  Sorry, are you suggesting that the undersea landslide was intentional?
- soligern 3y ago
  I don’t think the people running the show in Niger have the capability or know how to pull off an underwater cable shear that looks like a landslide. I bet even most developed countries wouldn’t be able to do it flawlessly.
  - jsty 3y ago
    Particularly from a landlocked country ...
  - psnehanshu 3y ago
    Junta
- deleted 3y ago
  [deleted]
- zx8080 3y ago
  Vagner, for sure /s
  - samstave 3y ago
    Uss Jimmy Carter
    - dylan604 3y ago
      If it's dealing with underwater cables, USS Halibut is the boat you want. They just need to look for "Made In The USA" stamped on any of the incriminating evidence. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Ivy_Bells https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Ivy_Bells
      - samstave 3y ago
        Carter is FU espionage V.3.0 But the NSO/NSA/SF red teams are formidable... Carter is on that team. - Carter is known to have a huge slurping nose which allows for the pickup and splicing of deep ocean lines such that they can put anything as rudimentary as a vampire-tap (copper) or an actual muxing fiber splice to beam split traffic...
        dylan604 3y ago
        Nice. Of course the Wiki page of the boat is missing all of those details. However, I was disappointed that the pictures do not show landing skids! Edit: i was looking at the image of "features" for this boat, and holy cow it looks like the most amazing spy platform. as cartoonish as that image is, anyone with any inkling of what underwater spy craft is about, this looks extremely purpose built for that "FU espionage v3.0" you mentioned.
        samstave 3y ago
        This is why the AWS sets in utah... among ither =groand things,,,, Youll find out eventually.
- 65a 3y ago
  Surely they have no support from a country that historically has damaged submarine cables as a sort of hobby, right?
cj 3y ago
Interesting that latency between Cape Town and Seoul actually improved (decreased) as a result of the cable cut, due to traffic being allowed on a more direct (and more expensive) route between the 2 cities. More examples in Slide 10 of https://www.linkedin.com/in/dougmadory/details/featured/50016397/single-media-viewer/?profileId=ACoAAABgDfMBQqg6K3WmEobvLYAvoetjdTSF-R0 https://www.linkedin.com/in/dougmadory/details/featured/5001...
- bruce343434 3y ago
  404
  - MichaelZuo 3y ago
    Same, the link's down.
- 13of40 3y ago
  Interesting - the service my team runs has had chronic latency problems with South Africa, so I wonder if I can see a difference in the metrics.
- dmbche 3y ago
  Here : https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Braess%27s_paradox https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Braess%27s_paradox This is the principle behind it I believe. It's a reaaaally cool rabbit hole.
  - toast0 3y ago
    I don't think that's the issue here if the poster is correct that the better route is more expensive than the one that failed. It's not irrational or paradoxical to use a route that's less expensive regardless of quality, but fail over to a more expensive route that also happens to be better quality. If you were planning to send something in the mail because it's low cost, but the post office was closed, you might use a courier service instead, pay more, and get your item to the destination quicker. No paradox there.
- 3y ago
aaron695 3y ago
> According to him, one of the cables had been dragged "over a kilometer" Undersea landslides can go for over a hundred kilometers and can last hours. So I'm not sure why this is impressive or in question? It doesn't seem unlikely to me.
- curtisf 3y ago
  Good journalists cite their factual claims, even/especially if they're believable. I've never heard of underwater landslides, and I don't think it's a reasonable assumption that a reader knows anything about them.
  - lostlogin 3y ago
    > I've never heard of underwater landslides They are a huge cause of tsunamis, with the slips often precipitated by earthquakes.
    - kfixjviv 3y ago
      In geology, there's a literature about cable breaks caused by "turbidity currents". In particular, this 1952 paper by Heezen and Ewing is celebrated https://gwern.net/doc/technology/1952-heezen.pdf https://gwern.net/doc/technology/1952-heezen.pdf
  - aaron695 3y ago
    [dead]
  - lproven 3y ago
    > I've never heard of underwater landslides Good heavens. You do surprise me. There have been some vast ones, e.g. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Storegga_Slide https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Storegga_Slide Some have the potential to massively affect human life well above sea level, e.g. La Palma in the Canary Islands, which when it goes will inundate much of the east coast of the USA: https://www.e-education.psu.edu/earth107/node/1609 https://www.e-education.psu.edu/earth107/node/1609 The video from that is sensationalist but makes some good points: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6utAunBKXV4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6utAunBKXV4
Etrnl_President 3y ago
"A communications disruption could mean only one thing… Invasion." —Sio Bibble
almost_usual 3y ago
Cloudflare Radar has a decent visualization of the event. https://radar.cloudflare.com/cg?dateRange=14d https://radar.cloudflare.com/cg?dateRange=14d
infomaniac 3y ago
Nothing interesting to add, just an anecdote. As someone based in a semi-rural part of South Africa, this dual cable break was a huge PITA for a few days. Latencies went through the roof; remote work was made very difficult.
- jonathanlydall 3y ago
  Fortunately work not noticeably affected, but Spotify can’t manage to stream, I have to use downloaded music or it constantly stops.
  - EvanKnowles 3y ago
    My web client was behaving waaay better than my desktop client on this issue.
tibbydudeza 3y ago
Due to some inane regulations there is only one ship that can fix the cable break and it was busy over 8000 km away fixing another cable break - will take a week to get onsite.
n6h6 3y ago
I read "submarine cables" and imagined a sort of monorail or guide-wire for an underwater vehicle. I thought, "I guess that makes sense, that'd probably be cheaper or safer than an untethered submarine". It's funny how "good" the brain is at rationalizing misconceptions like that. If I hadn't read a couple comments to try and see why Africa (or anyone) would need a safety-rope-assisted underwater submarine I might have gone on assuming that was just a normal thing.

118 points by dtjb 3y ago

mrlonglong 3y ago

[flagged]

PNewling 3y ago
Sorry, are you suggesting that the undersea landslide was intentional?
soligern 3y ago
I don’t think the people running the show in Niger have the capability or know how to pull off an underwater cable shear that looks like a landslide. I bet even most developed countries wouldn’t be able to do it flawlessly.
- jsty 3y ago
  Particularly from a landlocked country ...
- psnehanshu 3y ago
  Junta
deleted 3y ago
[deleted]
zx8080 3y ago
Vagner, for sure /s
- samstave 3y ago
  Uss Jimmy Carter
  - dylan604 3y ago
    If it's dealing with underwater cables, USS Halibut is the boat you want. They just need to look for "Made In The USA" stamped on any of the incriminating evidence. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Ivy_Bells https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Ivy_Bells
    - samstave 3y ago
      Carter is FU espionage V.3.0 But the NSO/NSA/SF red teams are formidable... Carter is on that team. - Carter is known to have a huge slurping nose which allows for the pickup and splicing of deep ocean lines such that they can put anything as rudimentary as a vampire-tap (copper) or an actual muxing fiber splice to beam split traffic...
      - dylan604 3y ago
        Nice. Of course the Wiki page of the boat is missing all of those details. However, I was disappointed that the pictures do not show landing skids! Edit: i was looking at the image of "features" for this boat, and holy cow it looks like the most amazing spy platform. as cartoonish as that image is, anyone with any inkling of what underwater spy craft is about, this looks extremely purpose built for that "FU espionage v3.0" you mentioned.
        samstave 3y ago
        This is why the AWS sets in utah... among ither =groand things,,,, Youll find out eventually.
65a 3y ago
Surely they have no support from a country that historically has damaged submarine cables as a sort of hobby, right?

cj 3y ago

Interesting that latency between Cape Town and Seoul actually improved (decreased) as a result of the cable cut, due to traffic being allowed on a more direct (and more expensive) route between the 2 cities. More examples in Slide 10 of https://www.linkedin.com/in/dougmadory/details/featured/50016397/single-media-viewer/?profileId=ACoAAABgDfMBQqg6K3WmEobvLYAvoetjdTSF-R0 https://www.linkedin.com/in/dougmadory/details/featured/5001...

bruce343434 3y ago
404
- MichaelZuo 3y ago
  Same, the link's down.
13of40 3y ago
Interesting - the service my team runs has had chronic latency problems with South Africa, so I wonder if I can see a difference in the metrics.
dmbche 3y ago
Here : https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Braess%27s_paradox https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Braess%27s_paradox This is the principle behind it I believe. It's a reaaaally cool rabbit hole.
- toast0 3y ago
  I don't think that's the issue here if the poster is correct that the better route is more expensive than the one that failed. It's not irrational or paradoxical to use a route that's less expensive regardless of quality, but fail over to a more expensive route that also happens to be better quality. If you were planning to send something in the mail because it's low cost, but the post office was closed, you might use a courier service instead, pay more, and get your item to the destination quicker. No paradox there.
3y ago

aaron695 3y ago

> According to him, one of the cables had been dragged "over a kilometer" Undersea landslides can go for over a hundred kilometers and can last hours. So I'm not sure why this is impressive or in question? It doesn't seem unlikely to me.

curtisf 3y ago
Good journalists cite their factual claims, even/especially if they're believable. I've never heard of underwater landslides, and I don't think it's a reasonable assumption that a reader knows anything about them.
- lostlogin 3y ago
  > I've never heard of underwater landslides They are a huge cause of tsunamis, with the slips often precipitated by earthquakes.
  - kfixjviv 3y ago
    In geology, there's a literature about cable breaks caused by "turbidity currents". In particular, this 1952 paper by Heezen and Ewing is celebrated https://gwern.net/doc/technology/1952-heezen.pdf https://gwern.net/doc/technology/1952-heezen.pdf
- aaron695 3y ago
  [dead]
- lproven 3y ago
  > I've never heard of underwater landslides Good heavens. You do surprise me. There have been some vast ones, e.g. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Storegga_Slide https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Storegga_Slide Some have the potential to massively affect human life well above sea level, e.g. La Palma in the Canary Islands, which when it goes will inundate much of the east coast of the USA: https://www.e-education.psu.edu/earth107/node/1609 https://www.e-education.psu.edu/earth107/node/1609 The video from that is sensationalist but makes some good points: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6utAunBKXV4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6utAunBKXV4

Etrnl_President 3y ago

"A communications disruption could mean only one thing… Invasion." —Sio Bibble

almost_usual 3y ago

Cloudflare Radar has a decent visualization of the event. https://radar.cloudflare.com/cg?dateRange=14d https://radar.cloudflare.com/cg?dateRange=14d

infomaniac 3y ago

Nothing interesting to add, just an anecdote. As someone based in a semi-rural part of South Africa, this dual cable break was a huge PITA for a few days. Latencies went through the roof; remote work was made very difficult.

jonathanlydall 3y ago
Fortunately work not noticeably affected, but Spotify can’t manage to stream, I have to use downloaded music or it constantly stops.
- EvanKnowles 3y ago
  My web client was behaving waaay better than my desktop client on this issue.

tibbydudeza 3y ago

Due to some inane regulations there is only one ship that can fix the cable break and it was busy over 8000 km away fixing another cable break - will take a week to get onsite.

n6h6 3y ago

I read "submarine cables" and imagined a sort of monorail or guide-wire for an underwater vehicle. I thought, "I guess that makes sense, that'd probably be cheaper or safer than an untethered submarine". It's funny how "good" the brain is at rationalizing misconceptions like that. If I hadn't read a couple comments to try and see why Africa (or anyone) would need a safety-rope-assisted underwater submarine I might have gone on assuming that was just a normal thing.